This blog is intended to catologue my journey as an artist. Since I am nearing the end of my third decade I thought I would begin by cataloguing my journey to this point:
I've always been creative. I was the kid that hid the scissors and paper in my desk and made snowflakes or origami during class. I dug clay from my yard and made pots for my mother for mother's day. I even made a Cinderella coach for my Barbies from a real pumpkin (no mice though). In high school I was more interested in theatrics than in visual art and didn't take a single art class until my final semester of my senior year. My high school printmaking teacher, Mr. Damron, was a no nonsense guy who taught the processes and when I showed promise let me work individually on my own masonite printblock, which I consider my first real revelation in art, "Her." It is a gorgeously simple figure, half corkscrew curled white girl, half braided hair black girl. Each side of her face is simply smiling. The ribbons on each side of her head are blowing gently in a breeze. I think in my innocence I wanted this to be the way the world looked at color, like a child, seeing the beauty in each twinkling eye. Years later I would enter a print of "Her" in the local art show, Rivers and Spires, and take first place in amateur mixed media.
There were other prints besides "Her;" "B is for Banana", which was childlike and simple, and "The Crow in the tree". I try to keep my ideas and art as simple as I can, because I think beauty is best that way. One of my favorites which I traded for another work to a local doctor was a thumbprint painting of a an oiled black man. The contrast between the dark skin and brightness of the reflecting light is peaceful and powerful. I'm not sure I actually titled that particular one.
In 1997 I started working at a local estate and ecclectic jewelry store. My boss, who was also the owner was a firecracker of a woman who either loves or despises things. When we wrapped gifts for the customers we weren't allowed to use tape. She had tissue paper, embossed aluminum foils, twist tie ribbon and regular ribbon, but the rule stood, no tape. This was a fabulous challenge for me and I soon was wrapping packages as tiny sculpures that would keep people coming back each year just for the wrapping. I made an entire Swan Princess ballet cast for one of my favorite customers, hearts for valentines day, packages that looked like bugs, butterflies, and swiss army knives, you name it and I would make it and send people home with instructions as to how to get the real present out so that they could still keep the "sculpture".
Along with the packages came the windows. I had never dressed a window, but my bosslady was sure I could do it and gave me free reign to be as creative as I could be. My friend and I made a four foot human heart for Valentine's Day, a crucified chic for which we recieved hate mail for Easter in order to protest the wholesale slaughter of the baby animals that get sold and ultimately die just so parents can give their child a fuzzy chic for Easter. Father's Day was a giant sperm and egg. Mothers day was a pregnant woman. Summer's window was an underwater scene with a shark hanging from the ceiling heading toward an innertube and a pair of legs dangling. For the millenium we had a huge four foot "computer bug" eating at a computer screen, which I'm told is hanging in someone's house. It was an adventure to be at her shop and be able to create anything that I wanted. She gave me a phrase and told me to run with it. I had never had so much freedom, but it couldn't last forever.
